Lochlee Parish Church

Lochlee Parish
Church

There has been a church serving the remote upland area where Glen
Lee and Glen Mark meet to become Glen Esk for nearly 1500 years. A church was
founded by St Drostan in the
early 600s on a site a mile to the west of today's church, close to Loch Lee.

This first church was replaced by one or more successors on the
same site, the most recent built some time around 1600. Little now remains of
this church, though the kirkyard has some interesting gravestones.

In 1803 a replacement church was build where you see it today. Much
of the building material was produced by demolishing the outbuildings of nearby
Invermark Castle, while many of the
slates for the church roof came from the roof of the castle, so dating back to
a major renovation it underwent in 1605.

Internally, Lochlee Parish Church is dominated by the fairly dark
wood used for the pews, for the large pulpit, and for the gallery the west end
of the church. It is not a large church, and the feel of the interior hovers
somewhere between "intimate" and "oppressive".

The graveyard is well kept and attractive. Especially poignant is
the gravestone near the west door of the church. This marks the grave of
William Fraser, the Tarfside village blacksmith who died at the age of 90 on 19
July 1964 and of his wife Jeannie Fraser. It is in the highly unusual form of
an anvil.

As one of three churches remaining in Glen Esk, the continuing need
for Lochlee Parish Church for its primary function is not great. The upper end
of the glen is served by monthly services held in the
Maule Memorial Church, at the
southern end of Tarfside, and these days
only occasional services are held at Lochlee Church.

Despite this, the church is available for a quiet moment of
reflection to the steady stream of hikers passing the gates from the nearby car
park at the head of Glen Esk en route for Mount Keen or Loch Lee.